Surfacing, whether it be of roads, walkways, building walls, kitchen floors, or desktops (as but a few examples), is a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States alone and includes technologies that have been highly developed over many years. Generally, the term surfacing relates to installation, application or construction of a surface (generally a portion of a solid stratum (or simply a solid, and including materials such as dirt, grass, gravel, rock, wood or concrete, to name a few) that interfaces with a fluid medium such as air) proximately to or in place of an underlying or pre-existing surface so as to improve or enhance durability, appearance, wear, or any number of material indices of the solid at the solid/fluid interface. The present invention relates generally to what may be termed discrete unit (or simply discrete) surfacing (meaning comprised of a plurality of discrete units, as opposed to what may be termed continuous or non-discrete surfacing such as bituminous road paving) that may be generally found in or around buildings and/or forming walkways or patios (as but a few examples) and is generally used for aesthetic and functional reasons.
For centuries, the repetitive nature and the resultant patterns that may arise from the use of a plurality of discrete individual surface (or surfacing) units (often in addition to what may be termed grout lines that exist between the installed discrete units) has improved the aesthetics of rooms, foyers, lobbies, patios, bathrooms, and kitchens, as but a few examples. Further, the look of the surface of the presupplied discrete units themselves (e.g., the appearance of a polished marble that may have veins and lines of separation) lends an appeasing natural look to any surface and enhances the overall appearance (perhaps as well as the commercial value) of any property on which it exists. Functionally, using discrete thin surface units that are often small in comparison to the surface they are used to cover allows for economic surfacing due to a minimization of predimensioned (e.g., off-job-site) surfacing material waste during on-job-site customization of edge units. Further functional economy is realized when repair of a damaged installed discrete surfacing unit surface may only require repair of one unit. Use of discrete surfacing units may also facilitate installation in that only the necessary number of discrete surfacing units need be transported to the job-site (in addition to the required substrate or grout). Further, the units may be transported to the job site in easily manageable crates, boxes or containers.
Despite the many advantages of the general discrete surfacing unit surfacing system, there has been a desire for many years to improve the installation and transportation processes, as well as the appearance and functionality of the resulting surface itself. Installation, although often performed at high efficiency, sometimes resulted in an unacceptably high amount of left-over or wasted surfacing material for a given job site—material whose unique type and quality often precludes investment recovery through use on another surfacing job. The appearance and aesthetics afforded by the ubiquitous square dimensioned thin surface units and the limited patterns they allow has been considered by some to have plateaued, although still aesthetic. Breakage during transport of expensive thin surface unit slabs and of discrete thin surface units shipped or delivered from quarries (or that are transported from any location and are made from stone) has always been a problem in the industry, as has also been the exorbitantly high costs of shipment.